1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a gas burner which employs a two stage flame stabilizer. At low input rates, a fully aerated flame is stabilized at the surface of a porous material. At higher input rates, the flame blows off and is held by flame stabilization tabs. Such structures of this type, generally, operate over a very wide range of input rates and employ a highly aerated flame which reduces the flame temperature, slows NOx production, and increases the overall reaction rate by shortening the flame while reducing carbon monoxide (CO) caused by flame impingement.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is known, in gas appliance burners, to make use of a porous wire gauze. As shown in FIG. 1, gas appliance burner 2, includes in part, tube 4, porous wire gauze 6, fuel-air inlet 8, flame 10, stove top 12, conventional cookware 14, and cover plate 16. During the operation of conventional gas appliance burner 2, fuel and air are introduced through inlet 8 into tube 4. This fuel and air mixture then interacts with gauze 6 and is combusted such that flame 10 is created. Located above flame 10 is conventional cookware 14. Cookware 14 may, for example, be a sauce pan. Cookware 14 is located on top of stove top 12. Optionally, a high temperature ceramic cover plate 16 may be located over the opening in stove top 12 where the heat from flame 10 interacts with cookware 14. While such a burner system 2, often termed an infrared burner, has met with a degree of commercial success, there are several problems associated with this conventional burner 2.
One of the problems with burner system 2 is a cleanability problem. As can be seen in FIG. 1, if liquids contained within cookware 14 were allowed to boil over cookware 14, these liquids may come in contact with gauze 6 and flame 10, thereby, reducing the efficiency of flame 10. However, if plate 16 is placed over the hole in cooktop 12, then, there are problems associated with the use of plate 16. For example, plate 16, typically, is a ceramic glass plate. These ceramic glass plates are expensive. Also, there is a possibility that the ceramic glass plate 16 may be broken if cookware 14 is accidently dropped upon plate 16. Finally, burner system 2 has a narrow operating range. Ideally, a burner should operate between 1,000 and 10,000 BTU/hr. However, burner 2, typically, operates only between 3,000 and 10,000 BTU/hr. The importance of the lower BTU range, namely, between 1,000 and 3,000, is that in this range, the burner operates in what is commonly referred to as the "simmer" heating range. If burner 2 is not capable of achieving this lower BTU range, then burner 2 is not able to perform the "simmer" operation which is necessary of all stove tops in order to cook with a very low amount of heat. Therefore, a more advantageous burner, then, would be presented if a wider BTU range could be achieved while allowing the burner to be inexpensive and easily cleaned.
It is apparent from the above that there exists a need in the art for a gas burner which is inexpensive, and which at least equals the cleaning characteristics of the known gas burners, but which at the same time is capable of operating over a larger BTU range. It is a purpose of this invention to fulfill this and other needs in the art in a manner more apparent to the skilled artisan once given the following disclosure.